Shop owner woken as smash-and-grab raiders steal bikes worth £19,000

The owner of a bike shop in Staffordshire has spoken of how he was woken up by smash-and-grab raiders who made off with bikes worth £19,000 when they burgled the premises in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Staffordshire Police, who have recovered one of the five bikes that was taken during the burglary, are appealing for information to try and help them track down the thieves, who broke into the shop at around 2.40am on Friday 23 December.

Business owner Matt Williams, who lives in the flat above the Run & Ride shop in the village of Milford, which lies close to Cannock Chase, told Staffordshire Live: “I'm just feeling a little flat. It is not only a break-in, they have caused damage.

“We were supposed to be relaxing with our regular customers over the last couple of days.

“It was about 20 to three this morning when three guys smashed their way into the front door. I live above the shop and they disturbed me. Just as I was coming downstairs they were driving off.

“Thankfully my neighbours got their reg number. They took five bikes with the cheapest being around £3k with the most expensive at around £5.5k.

“Overall they took around £19k worth of products. We do have insurance but we haven'[t started that process yet,” added Mr Williams, who also posted news of the burglary to the shop’s Facebook page.

According to police, the gang loaded bikes into a Vauxhall Insignia van and police sat that shortly afterwards, officers found one of the stolen bikes, a Cannondale, dumped on the A34 in Huntington.

The van itself was later discovered abandoned in Willenhall, between Wolverhampton and Walsall, and was found to have been stolen.

Besides the Cannondale bike, the four bicycles stolen in the burglary are described as a “Whyte T-160 S XL, a Merida Reacto 5000 black/red large, a Merida Scultura 9000 gold large, and a Merida one-sixty 6000 black mid.”

Anyone with information is requested to contact Staffordshire Police on 101 or via Facebook or Twitter, quoting incident number 61 of 23 December.

Alternatively, the charity Crimestoppers can be contacted, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.